CyberArk, FireEye Fall Short on Expectations, Stock Tumbles

CyberArk and FireEyes shares fell late Thursday with the release of their financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2015.

CyberArk posted a total revenue of $51.5 million, up 42% compared with the fourth quarter of 2014. While the total revenue was $160.8 million, up 56% compared with 2014.

On the other hand FireEye’s Q4 2015 revenue stood at $184.8 million, an increase of 29 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014. While for the year 2015 it posted revenue of $623.0 million, an increase of 46 percent from 2014.

“2015 was another record year for CyberArk,” said Udi Mokady, CyberArk CEO. “We executed on our strategy to expand our sales and marketing reach, enhance our product offering, and strengthen our position as the recognized leader in Privileged Account Security.”

“We made tremendous progress in 2015 on our multi-year journey to build the world’s leading advanced threat management platform,” said David DeWalt, FireEye chairman of the board and chief executive officer.

CyberArk stocks tanked late Thursday, down by 7.5%, and FireEye stocks was down 2.5% in after hours trading as per investors.com.

There is now a growing concern in the market about the slowing down on cyber security spend. After data analytics firm Tableau Software attributed its own slow growth to softening IT spend, FireEye too has issued a caveat on slowdown in cyber security spending this year.

“Both stocks had taken a hit last week after weak guidance from data analytics firm Tableau Software (DATA) raised fears of slower IT spending this year — including security spending — as global stock markets have sunk this year on macroeconomic worries,” stated investors.com.

CyberArk is issuing guidance for the first quarter and full year 2016. For the Q1 2016 it’s expecting its total revenue to be in the range of $42.5 million to $43.5 million which represents 29% to 32% year-over-year growth.
While for the full year 2016 the total revenue is expected to be in the range of $205 million to $207 million which represents 27% to 29% year-over-year growth.

“Our investments delivered record results across all financial and operational metrics. As we enter 2016, we believe that the momentum in our business positions us to capitalize on the rapidly growing, greenfield opportunity for this must-have new layer of enterprise security and to continue to deliver strong growth and solid profitability,” commented Mokady.

For the first quarter of 2016, FireEye expects total revenue in the range of $167 to $177 million. And for 2016, FireEye expects total revenue in the range of $815 to $845 million.

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